Finding the educational value in everyday things and putting it into "education-ese" ~ Is...

[Climbing Rose]

A while ago I saw a chart that listed everyday activities on one side, and on the other side, it listed the education value and even would turn into 'education-ese.'

We just moved to a high-regulation state, and we need to meet a lot of requirements in the form of hours/days, subjects, keeping logs, meeting with certain people, having a portfolio, testing, on and on.

A lot of the advice I have gotten is to able to word our records well and to include regular things in an educational form.  So instead of saying that we went to the store today so it doesn't "count" at all, we could instead say we used addition, subtraction, communication skills, compared things, sorted things, etc. 

Does that make sense? 

It's not *that* important, but it does give us a lot more freedom to make things count, so my DC and I don't feel like there are quite as many silly hoops to jump though!  I know I can do it without a chart, but the chart just made it look so easy!  =)

Thanks.

[SundayCrepes]

I wonder if these guides would help you. They're not what you're asking about, but they might help: http://www.fun-books.com/books/living_is_learning_guides.htm

The site says:

These guides are put together by Nancy Plent, founder of the Unschoolers Network in New Jersey and a long-time homeschooler. She reviewed the scope and sequence charts and curriculum guides of dozens of schools in various states, then combined the highest standards of elements from each to create these guides. Why purchase these curriculum guides? 1) They may help you to fulfill your state's legal requirement to provide an educational plan 2) They allow you to see some of the highest standards for schools at various grade levels, just in case you are curious about what the schools expect or are anxious about what you are doing 3) They provide record-keeping space that can help organize a portfolio.

Besides providing a checklist under each subject, Nancy offers suggestions on how to translate real-life experience into curricula goals. She also lists resources from a variety of companies. Each guide covers two or more grade levels. The first four are in comb binding, while the high school guide is in a 3-ring binder.

[sapphire_chan]

It might be easier to go the other way. Look at the requirements and how they are phrased, figure out what activities are teaching the relevant skills, then write up the activities in the language of the requirements.

e.g. requirement says "student will do single digit addition" and you play a board game with dice and report it as "mathematics, 25 minutes, focus on single digit addition"

Hmm, that might actually be too detailed. Don't give them any more details than they ask for or they'll start taking details for granted and will get huffy if you don't give them later on.

http://www.parentatthehelm.com/2053/educationese-for-beginners/ has a nice chart with a variety of activities for inspiration.

[4evermom]

While you could list all the things your child does in "educationalese," you don't need to.  It is a fun exercise and might make you feel more confident, though.  You aren't asked to submit a list of what your child has learned in PA.  You have to submit portfolio samples.  You don't need to add notes of explanation or interpretation or anything.  

You'll have your booklist, of course.  Just a list of all the books you read or referenced during the year.  I did make sure that there were a couple about PA history and other required subjects so there was no doubt that they were covered.  For PA history, I read a book about Anthony Wayne and another about Ben Franklin to ds.  Then there is the attendance log, just 180 boxes with checkmarks in them.  For the portfolio, it's suggested that you pick one thing from the beginning of the year and one thing from the end of the year in the major subjects because that shows progress.  You don't have to have something for every single subject.  For science, I mounted some pictures on a piece of paper of ds doing some experiments (that's his thing).  For writing, I submitted an early and a late sample of a computer game scenario that he composed (the story line he made up).  The early one was just a basic description.  In the later sample, he included dialogue.  The two dated samples definitely showed progress.

Then, I found a nice evaluator who did a distance interview with ds (asked him a couple of open ended questions).  He dictated his answers and I enclosed them with everything else I sent her for review.  She sent me a letter declaring that an appropriate education was taking place and I sent that along with everything else required to the school district. 

You have found Pauline's Guide to Homeschooling in PA, I hope? http://home.comcast.net/~askpauline/index.html 

[Lillian J]

Here are some threads and resources that offer good ideas:

Finding the educational value in everyday things and putting it into "Educationese"

Unschooling Record Keeping

Samples and Checklists - Unschooling Record Keeping

Lillian

[EviesMom]

In commenting on the other thread, I also ended up pulling up this: http://www.corestandards.org/the-standards

I think I'm going to print out the ones for my kid's grade level so it's easy to pull a few when it comes time to write the reports. (I just record what we literally did for each day, and then align it to standards or edu-speak when it comes report time).

[Climbing Rose]

Thank you so much for all the links!  I am looking thru all of them, and they are great. 

I don't know why, but I can see this education-ese turning into a running family joke at our house.  It just makes me laugh.  Like "DS, stop using your brother's face to experiment with free-form three-dimensional movement activities!"        Or I am really just too tired lately.